Bull in a China Shop

Every year we get together with John's side of the family for a holiday get together and gift exchange before Christmas. This year, the extravaganza was at Laura's house. I'm pretty disappointed I don't have more pictures to show you. Instead of taking pictures, I was chasing Brendan around and saying things like . . .

Brendan, put that ornament back on the tree.
Brendan! *oh my gosh* That wasn't sentimental or anything, was it?

I promise I'll buy you a new one.

Brendan, stop pulling all the books off the shelves.

Brendan, stop chewing your food and spitting it out on the *new* carpet.

Brendan, that bottle of beer is not yours.

You get the idea.

If Laura's house was the china shop, our dear Brendan was certainly the bull.

Brendan did spend some of his time (.93873740283475 of a second) relaxing with Grandpa,

posing for a photo with Megan

and conning Aunt Kathy into sharing her water.
Heck, it is better than the beer he had tried to swipe earlier!
Ho, ho, ho.

Next year, I'm offering to host the K family extravaganza.
Brendan has already broken everything here :)

Santa Trauma

In an attempt to avoid the long lines at the mall, this year we arranged a "private meeting" with Santa Claus himself at my friend Kasey's house. I dressed the kids, packed my camera, and hoped for the perfect ho-ho-ho-photo of smiling children sitting on the lap of Santa. I even had the scrapbook page all planned out in my head. It was going to be absolute magic!

Magic . . . until Brendan actually saw Santa Clause.

His perfect ho-ho-ho-scrapbookable-smile turned into this . . .

This is his totally-terrified-but-not-too-terrified-to-stop-eating-this-cookie smile.

It reminds me of when Megan sat on Santa's lap when she was about his age.

Let's take a walk down memory lane here . . .

Megan 2007

And now back to good old, terrifying 2010.

Megan didn't seem too happy about sitting on Santa's lap either. I think she forced herself, afraid of what he might bring if she didn't give him her detailed list.

She was very business-like and described exactly what she was hoping for this year.

Maybe one of these year's I'll get a scrapbookable photo of my kids on Santa's lap, but I doubt it.

CAKEcakeCAKEcakeCAKE

Will you please go here and vote for my cake.

I entered a cake contest and I don't really care about winning.

I just want to beat this weird looking frog cake that someone entered.

It is really burning me up that the frog cake is beating me.

Here is a pic I stole off the website of the frog cake I'm talking about.

See how much I need your votes.

Please.

And now, some other cakes I've made recently.

This one was for a blog reader of mine who happened to live here in Central Ohio.

It was for her sister's baby shower.

This one was for an Ohio State football fan turning the big 3-0.

This ole guy was for a family Christmas party.
We cut him up into little pieces and ate him.
And he was good!

That's all for today, folks.
Tune back tomorrow when I share some pictures of my children screaming on Santa's lap.
Good times.
Good times.

Now go vote for me please!
That frog cake must go down!!!!!!!!!!

Will You Do Me a Favor?

Remember this cake I made for Brendan's first birthday party?

I entered it in a cake contest and I need your help.

Will you go here and vote for my cake?

Pretty please with sugar on top?

Then do it again every day until December 27????

(You can vote once a day, every day until Dec 27)

Ask all your friends to do it too.

You can have a lets-all-vote-for-Lisa's-cake-so-she-shuts-up-about-it-party.

You can even blog about it yourself.

C'mon!

Doesn't that sound fun???

My Favorite Four Letter Word

What is your favorite four letter word?
Mine is F-R-E-E . . . FREE

Did you know Shutterfly is offering a promotion this year to bloggers?

It is amazing. Simply blog about how wonderful Shutterfly is and receive 50 FREE Christmas cards. FREE! It is my favorite four letter word. For more info on this promotion, go here.

Every year Shutterfly comes out with gorgeous designs for Christmas cards. This year, their designs are nothing short of exceptional. They are very simple to use as well. All you have to do is go to their website http://www.shutterfly.com/, chose your design, upload your photo, add your information, order your cards, and voila . . . a beautiful Christmas card!

Here are some of my favorite designs . . . .

I love how simple and elegant this one is.

I love how this one has multiple photos (for those of you out there who are actually able to get more than one photo of your children without funny faces, mutual nose picking, etc.). The colors in this one are striking as well. (And p.s. - I'm secretly jealous of you non-funny-faces-non-mutual-nose-picking photo obtainers.)

And how cool is this one? It is kinda like a Christmas newsletter but I guarantee your friends won't roll their eyes when they open it up. You could include things like #10 - Both the kids made the honor roll at their exclusive, private school and #9 - The baby now speaks four languages, blah, blah blah. But let's keep it real folks. If you are like me, your top ten could possibly include #10- Finally finding the kids at Walmart after they were hopelessly lost for a half-an-hour. The options are endless.

If you want to buy one of these beautiful cards for yourself, simply click here.

Did you know Shutterfly also sells desk calendars where you can upload all of your non-mutual-nose-picking photos? Everyone needs a calendar. What a great gift idea! Click here for more info on these calendars.

And for those of you planning on having a baby in 2011 . . . Shutterfly also sells beautiful birth announcements. Click here for more info on these.

So now you've learned two things about me that you may not have known before. One, I have a hard time getting a picture of my two kids without mutual nose picking going on (eww, I hope you're not eating) and two, I'm not above shameless promotion for free stuff. Not above it one bit!

Now quit reading my blog and go check out http://www.shutterfly.com/.

Can I have my free stuff now?

And Now You Know Why

Or I guess I could title this "Why No one's Heard From Me in a While."

This cake was a challenge for me. My customer wanted Handy Manny's toolbox and all the tools to be edible for his son. Just one problem - I had never even heard of Handy Manny and neither had my little sidekick Megan. A quick internet search and we were off . . .

Handy Manny's toolbox was carved from rice krispie treats and covered in fondant. All the tools were sculpted from fondant. The cake was classic white with Bavarian cream filling, iced in buttercream. I really like how it turned out!

Megan went with me to deliver the cake and was BEAMING when the customer was complimenting the cake. He asked how I got the brick impression on the sides of the cake and Megan started explaining it to him. I was so proud!

The same weekend (which happened to be the weekend after Thanksgiving), I had to make this little cake for my niece Austyn. She wanted a gymnastics cake that was pink and purple. I don't think she asked for the thumb print on the front border but I threw that in for her at no extra charge.

Now, if you drive by my house (which you shouldn't be doing unless you are my neighbor or a creepy stalker) you will still find a wooden turkey on my front porch, my beautiful fall wreath still perched on my front door, and my mums collecting a dusting of snow in their urns. I think I'm the only one in the neighborhood not yet decorated for Christmas . . . .

and now you know why.